Welcome 2007!

Struggling Bay Area Odissi Dancer, Asako Takami

----------------------------------------

AN INVITATION TO EXPERIENCE ODISSI - ONE OF INDIA'S MOST GRACEFUL CLASSICAL DANCE FORMS...

...with critically acclaimed dancer, SUJATA MOHAPATRA, daughter-in-law
of Padma Vibhushan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra

She, without shred of doubt, is now the best female exponent of Odissi…
Utpal K Banerjee, THE PIONEER

She is a replica of her guru in female garb…
Ranee Kumar, THE HINDU

…Sujata Mohapatra’s Odissi recital epitomizes in every detail the dance as visualized by her guru, the late Kelucharan Mohapatra. The immaculate dance contours of Sujata’s Odissi, particularly the measured perfection and grace of the torso isolations…
Leela Venkatraman, THE HINDU

Sujata…mesmerized the audience with her pulsating performance…Dancing with delight and spontaneity, her fluid movements and sculpturesque poses proved her prowess as a dancer of international stature.
INDIAN EXPRESS

ODISSI WORKSHOPS
FOR BEGINNERS & ADVANCED STUDENTS OF ODISSI AND ALSO FOR PROFESSIONALS/STUDENTS OF ANY DANCE FORM.
Dates: November 8-17, 2007
Venue: Locations around the Bay Area
Early bird discount for registration before October 31st

Registration Forms (pdfs):
Beginners Workshop
Dancers Workshop
Odissi Workshop

View Poster as low-res HTML page, as a high-res PDF

----------------------------------------

CLASSES!

Cupertino Classes on Sundays:
fit4u studio,
Orchard Farm Center
6158 Bollinger Road @ Miller
www.fit4ufitness.com
9:30am-10:30am: Young Childrens Beginner Class (4.5-6)
10:30am-12:15pm: Junior Level Class
12:15pm-1:30pm: Adult Beginner Class
1:00pm-2:15pm: Childrens Beginner Class (7-12)

San Francisco Classes on Mondays:
Cultural Integration Fellowship
2650 Fulton Street @ 3rd Avenue
8:00pm-9:00pm: Adult Beginner Class

Union City Classes on Tuesdays:
Rima Chakraborty's Garage
34747 Williams Way
5:00pm-6:00pm: Young Childrens Beginner Class (4.5-6)
6:00pm-8:00pm: Junior Level Class
8:00pm-9:00pm: Adult Beginner Class

San Carlos Classes on Thursdays:
Niharika Mohanty's Garage
115 Aster Road
7:00pm-9:00pm: Senior Level Class

Please see Teaching for more information about Niharika's teaching experience and teaching style and contact to contact Niharika for more information regarding classes.

Niharika's teaching brochure is available to view or print as a pdf file. Please note that it is a double sided, double folded brochure:
Brochure Front
Brochure Back

----------------------------------------

Niharika's Past Events:

Featured in Cover Story of February India Currents

----------------------------------------

Experience the lyrical charm, spirituality, sculpturesque grace, and haunting music of an ancient Indian art form by a prominent disciple of the legendary Odissi master,
Late Padmabibhushan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra

Niharika Mohanty Presents:

Two Free Events for Bay Area's National Dance Week
View Poster as low-res HTML page, as a high-res PDF

Odissi Dance: The Art Form & Its Spirituality

A Lecture/Demonstration
Sunday April 22nd
11am-12:30pm
At Cultural Integration Fellowship
2650 Fulton Street @ 3rd Avenue

Niharika Mohanty presents the Odissi repertoire in succession as a spiritual journey in the way it is learnt beginning with the Bhumi Pranam, a salutation to Mother Earth, especially of interest in the celebration of Earth Day. She also will present the history of Odissi dance as it evolved from a devotional form of worship performed by women to the present day form. Niharika will be assisted by her students and Odissi dancer, Shalini Patnaik.

Please contact Niharika for more information: nmohanty@gmail.com

A Taste of Odissi Dance

A Beginners Workshop
Sunday April 22nd
1:30-3:30pm
At Cultural Integration Fellowship
2650 Fulton Street @ 3rd Avenue
Please be in attire that is loose and comfortable to move in.

Experience:
• An ancient tradition
• A legendary Guru's vision of beauty
• A dedicated disciple's teaching style
• Odissi dance

Those seriously interested are invited to join beginner classes in May in San Francisco or ongoing beginner classes in Cupertino and Union City (please see below).

Please contact Niharika for more information: nmohanty@gmail.com

----------------------------------------

Niharika Performed Duet With Odissi Dancer Vishnu Tattva Das:

Om Namah Shivaya
Dear Friends, Rasikas and Dancers,

We warmly invite you for a very special evening of celebration with dance in honor of Lord Shiva on the most auspicious night of Mahashivarathri. For the sixth year now, this has been an ocassion for dancers to get together informally and share thier art, offering worship to the Supreme Dancer, Lord Shiva.

Date : Friday, February 16, 2007
Time: 6:45pm to 9:15pm
Venue: Marilyn Rea Hall, Mission City Center For Performing Arts 3250 Monroe St., Santa Clara, CA 95051
Directions: Below
RSVP: (510)713 2401 deepa_srikanth@hotmail.com
(Seating is limited, Please do arrive on time)

We will begin with a beautiful Odissi duet presentations by Vishnu Tattwa Das and Niharika Mohanty after a vocal invocation by young artists.
The second part consists of 3 mini-productions. The first is "Ritu Sambhavam" produced by Jyothi Lakkaraju of Natyalaya Dance school with Santosh Lakkaraju and guest artists Vaidehi Yellai and Himabindu Challa. It depicts how Shiva, in his different moods, gives rise to the 6 seasons. The second is "Angha Bhava" (original concept,music Smt. Lalitha Srinivasan), newly choreographed and rendered by14 Bharatanatyam dancers. Four Bhavas are expressed using Nritta alone. The third, "Shiva Parvathi", is a Kuchipudi rendition of Thandava/Lasya. Interspersed, is traditional Bharatanatyam by BharataKala Kutiram dancers and Kalanjali dancers Archana Ganapathi and Sriranjani Raghavan

Thank you
Anuradha & Deepa.

For additional information please contact:
Deepa Srikanth deepa_srikanth@hotmail.com (510) 713 2401
Anuradha Prabhashanker anuradhap@sbcglobal.net (408)252 6046

Directions:
From 101: Exit Lawrence going South. (Go past Central Expressway, past Kifer)
Left on Monroe.
It is on the right-hand-side, located adjcent to Wilcox High School at 3250 Monroe Street (intersection of Calabazes and Monroe)

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

----------------------------------------

SHRADHANJALI, By Kalashri Sangha on October 7th, 2001 in San Francisco

The audience is pin-drop silent as they listen and watch the group sing praises to the Lord in a prayer, a prayer of peace, a prayer of love, a prayer blessing all, a prayer for the victims of the recent tragedies.

The dance begins. One by one, the dancers are seen in unison, first in silhouette, then in glimpses, and finally with a single devotion fully viewed in their faces and bodies. Through visually stunning formations and vivid expressions, the dancers describe the physical characteristics of the Lord, concluding with a salutation to all.

Through brilliantly choreographed pieces by the great Odissi masters, the dancers in solos, duet, and triplet display various aspects -- the divine, the joyous, the enchanting, the graceful, the vigorous, the subtle, the dramatic, the shy, the mischievous, the humiliated, the commander - all through arresting stage presence and spectacular show of technique.

They end with a dance of ecstatic joy, culminating in another universal prayer to the Mother Goddess, and finally in the ultimate surrender in OM.

----------------------------------------

KALASHRI SANGHA

Kalashri Sangha wishes to acknowledge the great Odissi gurus and composers. We are humbly grateful to them for our existence as Odissi dancers, teachers, and choreographers. Last year, we presented a tribute performance in honor of Padma Vibhusan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. This year, we presented the performance, Shradhanjali, at ODC Theater in San Francisco, dedicated to the memory of Late Guru Deba Prasad Das. We dedicated individual pieces to Padma Vibhusan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra for his 75th birthday anniversary celebration, to our great Odissi composers who are no longer with us, Late Sangeet Sudhakar Balakrushna Dash and Late Pandit Bhubaneswar Mishra.

Kalashri Sangha ("a group perpetuating artistic beauty") is a collective formed of the Bay Area Odissi Dancers - Asako Takami, Jyoti Rout, Vishnu Tattva Das, Niharika Mohanty, and Leena Mohanty. We feel blessed in coming together and sharing our mutual love for Odissi dance. We meet on a regular basis to inspire each other through our joint scholarly discussion and practice.

Our aim is to disseminate this beautiful dance form in North America, but specifically in the Bay Area. In the past, we have performed together and organized a workshop by the renowned master of Odissi dance, Padma Vibhusan Guru Kelucharan Mohapatra. In the future, we plan to choreograph dance dramas, present Odissi festivals, participate in other festivals and conferences, present lecture/demonstrations and workshops in schools, colleges, and universities, and organize workshops and programs by the great Odissi masters.

----------------------------------------